Crusader Kings III News

Hello and welcome to the Developer Diary focusing on 3D Art for Crusader Kings III: Legacy of Persia. I’m Lucas Ribeiro, the Art Lead for the project. Before we move on to looking at some of the amazing 3D artwork the team has created for the Flavor Pack, I would like to give an overview of our decision-making process.

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When creating art for Legacy of Persia, we were looking for ways to represent the resurgence of the Iranian identity in the Iranian Intermezzo after two centuries of intermingling and struggling with the Arab and Turkic peoples. This meant we needed to give Persian characters their own new look and at the same time reinforce the visual identities of the Turks and Arabs.

We focused on 8th - 11th century references, basing our work on the art produced by Iranians that were inspired by Sassanian and-or Zoroastrian sources while at the same time not looking anachronistic. The clothes we see in Legacy of Persia should be as close as possible to what we might see a 10th century Samanid Amir wear.

To this end we created loads of new artifacts, buildings, military units, beards, hairstyles, clothes and of course HATS aimed mostly at the Iranian culture, while creating a few new key recognizable extra assets for the Turkic and Arab cultures.

Now, onto the art!

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[h2]Environment Art[/h2]​

Stina Arvidsson Rådestig was our main 3D Environment Artist for the project, and she’ll give us some nice insights into the process of creating Monuments, Holdings and Artifacts for Legacy of Persia

We had the honor of researching the artifacts, ruined structures, natural wonders, and special monuments of ancient Persia and providing a list of candidates to serve as the basis for court artifacts and special buildings for this flavor pack. Given the rich history of this region, and the large body of interesting and beautiful monuments; geographical variety; and the surviving works of art from this time period, it was a very difficult task to narrow the list down to the ones we would want to make it into the game.

Our aim was to achieve variety - both from an aesthetic and game mechanical perspective - in order to create a balanced gameplay experience.



[h3]Court Artifacts[/h3]

Court artifacts are amazing to work on, because they are based on real world historical artifacts - special items, works of art, or trinkets that have survived through the ages, impressing historians and laymen alike either with backstory, craftsmanship, or beauty. (Or, as in the case with the complaint letter to Ea-Nasir - just for being plain silly!). As 3D artists, apart from the technical constraints set by our game engine and triangle count, there are few things limiting our freedom to portray these beautiful and interesting artifacts as accurately as possible. We strive to do these items justice - while still keeping the assets practical and optimized - , so we make sure to gather a large body of verified references, including photographs, illustrations, and descriptive texts. We want the players to feel as if they are looking at the real thing - not just a bleak, filtered interpretation - that’s why our approach is to capture the form, the details, the ornamental patterns as accurately as possible, only omitting tiny details or making changes if necessary for practical reasons.

Typically, we sculpt ornamental detail in Zbrush using either curve brushes, traditional sculpting brushes, or modeling tools. Sometimes taking a node-based approach in Substance Designer, or using image-based techniques. Each method has its own pros and cons - sometimes we even combine multiple methods for one asset.


[The image on the left shows a photograph of the Oxus Treasure Bracelet artifact. The middle and right images show the finalized 3D asset.]


[Photograph of the Il-Khanid brass casket artifact]


[Wireframe and final 3D asset]


[A few other court artifacts that can be found throughout Persia: A Sassanian Sword, an Incense Burner Cat Sculpture, and an ancient drinking vessel.]



[h3]Special Buildings[/h3]

Making the special buildings present an entirely different challenge compared to court artifacts. Monuments are very small, and they use a premade texture atlas. Each time a new flavor pack is made, the texture atlas is changed to better fit with the building materials, and color scheme of the region. Details are minimalistic - but it works really well in game! This atlas is made using a texture-making software called Substance Designer. The challenge is to create a symbolic representation of the real-world counterpart - yet to stay true to historical references! Much like with court artifacts, we look closely at references to find the answer to questions like: What did the entrance gate of this castle really look like? Did this fortress have a moat? What is the plan layout of this temple? And from there, we work to exaggerate the most visually distinct parts, whereas more redundant, less noteable details may be toned down.

Another thing that we like to do is look for signs of old ruins and structures, and try to restore them in our models.

Take a look at the comparisons below, to see the differences between some real-world locations and our monuments:


[Real-world Soltaniyeh Monument, and our interpretation of it in-game]


[Current days Ark of Bukhara and our interpretation]


[Ctesiphon ruins and our interpretation of what it might’ve looked like if restored.]


[The texture atlas used when texturing all holding models and Special Buildings in Legacy of Persia.]


We like to take a modular approach whenever possible - this saves a lot of time! It means that we will make simple structures like a piece of a wall, a tower, a door, for example and model and texture them to completion, only to duplicate them later. Sometimes, we make use of symmetry and mirroring functions within my 3D software (usually Autodesk Maya), to model only a quarter of a model, and then instantly turn it into a whole model.



[h3]Holdings[/h3]

Holdings are the fortresses, walls, temples, and cities of Crusader Kings III. Their visual design follows a specific formula and is usually based not on any one single existing building, but rather the general architectural style of the era.

Zoroastrian temples are especially unique as they have smoke billowing out of them to represent the holy fires they might’ve had going inside.





[h3]Natural Wonders[/h3]

We also had the chance to include a few unique natural wonders of the region. Such as the seasonally magenta Maharloo Lake, the breathtaking Rainbow Mountains and the sacred Mount Damavand, steeped in myth and legend.




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[h2]Character Art​[/h2]

Let’s look through some of the many new assets that the team has created to make this region even more flavorful, with Elena Zenko as the main character artist on the project

The first step of making character assets is to collect references and gather information of how these assets should look like. And it was an extremely tricky though fun part of the FP3.
Not that many historical depictions of how people dressed have survived until this day. That influenced us to be even more thorough in our attempt to be as accurate as possible. (Sharbush) Hats off to our Principal Character Artist Nils for helping out with research and concept work on these. It was definitely not easy to collect, contextualize and ascertain the validity and quality of our references.

As inspiration we were using different sources like The Book of Fixed Stars, and plenty of surviving murals from different parts of ancient Persia, that nowadays are Iran, Tajikistan, Syria, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, and even China. Sometimes we had just written descriptions from Encyclopaedia Iranica. We used these many sources as evidence to some of the new assets that would otherwise look like they were straight out of high fantasy!

Let’s take a look at the new clothes:



The images show the process of creating the asset from reference to concept to finished asset in the game. As a main reference we used wall paintings from one of the Ghaznavid palaces at Laškarī Bāzār in central Afghanistan. The men are wearing qabā, a mid calf-length coat that opens up in front with one side of the coat hanging on the chest. On the sleeves you can see ṭirāz in the form of armbands - those are Persian embroidery that are inscribed in the coat. One cool feature of the asset is many belts, and a humble artist cannot resist making them for the game. It brought some pain later on with testing animations, but we sacrifice ourselves for beautiful clothes.




Another cool asset that is primarily based on kitāb suwar al-kawākib or The Book of Fixed Stars. The illustrations there are quite unique, and we had some moments of concern if these clothes existed in real life and how we recreate something like this in the game. Eventually, the temptation to make unique and sophisticated cloth was higher than common sense and time restriction, so we ended up making this. The asset contains the outer rich styled robe khaftān, that is made from silver or gold brocade or silk. The most interesting part of the asset is elaborately cut sleeves and the skirt decorated with ṭirāz that you may see present on the illustrations from The Book of Fixed Stars.




This picture represents male and female cloth assets that are based on the real Seljuk robe of the 11-12th century. Another reference was a 10th century bowl with a Figure and Bird. Both of these assets have belts with ornamental discs that we’ve found present on the pictures of painted terracotta sarcophagus cover in the Monastery in Fondukistan.




These pictures represent a female cloth asset based on stucco relief from the book Negar-e Zan that shows a, presumably, female attendant at the court of Kalhana. We also used a reference of the Seljuq Standing Figure that might depict a sultan or one of his vassals. Interestingly, female attendants at the court were supposed to wear men’s dress, which sometimes makes it hard to tell who is in the picture. As for the belt we returned back to The Book of Fixed Stars and found some interesting rectangular belt fittings that we sure added in our collection of Absolutely Historically Accurate belts.



[h3]Headgears[/h3]




It’s a small, flattened cap with a diadem and a bow that is based on our favorite Book of Fixed Stars. This time we spent a significant amount of time making concepts and contemplating if the headgear had a cap or if it was some sort of the strap holding the diadem and pushing the hair.




Another asset that we made was a Seljuk stiff cap edged with fur, with a metal plate over the forehead. Turkic characters of duke rank will be seen wearing this very recognizable asset!




And here are new Persian crowns that sometimes seem out of fantasy, though they are indeed based on late Sasanian coins and 7-8th century murals. The most common type of royal headgear we found from the period was the winged crown. Additionally, the shape of the wings on the male crown resembles hands that we found fascinating. The depiction of these wings was found on the wall paintings of the Afrasiab murals, a rare example of Sogdian art.




Here is another set of the new Imperial crowns that were based on our beloved Book of Fixed Stars. You can see another version of the winged crown, though this time the wings are bigger as fits an imperial figure. A well-known fact - with the big power comes big wings (and strong neck).




We thankfully still have many surviving patterns on fabrics from the time period. Common motifs were mythological Iranian creatures such as the Simurgh or the Huma. Pheasants and ducks were also very popular imagery.

Diving deep into the aesthetics of this twilight period in Iran was incredibly rewarding. We discovered beautiful imagery and pieces of craftsmanship that we were honored to interpret and combine into these 3D assets that gave Persia and its inhabitants their own unique look and feel.

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Join the struggle for medieval dominance in Legacy of Persia, the new Flavor Pack for Crusader Kings III, releasing on November 9.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2313540/Crusader_Kings_III_Legacy_of_Persia/

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Hello and welcome to this development diary about flavor additions to the greater Iran area. That means in this diary you will get a test of many things that, while individually small, aim to increase the overall authenticity and uniqueness in this part of the world.

I will also begin with a shout out to Vaniljkaka who worked on the first draft of this DD and did a lot of the event and research work for Legacy of Persia.

► Discuss Dev Diary #138 on our forums!



[h2]Historical Flavor[/h2]

One way to significantly improve the state of the game in a given start date is to look into what unresolved issues were ongoing in a specific location at the time. To a large degree that is the thinking behind the struggle system itself but and as already described in a previous development diary there is now both a new 867 bookmark start, and a struggle called the Iranian Intermezzo to achieve this.

But the struggle alone cannot cover everything that was important for a ruler in medieval Iran in 867 or 1066. We have therefore taken the opportunity to more thoroughly research the starting situation for both starts, adding new rulers, dynasties, rivalries, as well as less politically influential characters such as scholars or artists active in our time period. Existing family trees have also been significantly expanded in many cases and should also now make use of a new set of coat-of-arms using Iranian or Islamic elements.

Additionally, there has been a general go over of the cultural and religious setup of the entire region, with adjustments here and there aiming to better reflect the political realities of the time.



The biggest changes are to certain religious groups or sects that were important in 9th century Iran - the Mu’tazila, the Khurramites, the Azariqa. The rebellious, egalitarian Khurramites would be particularly suited for underdog playthroughs though none are landed at the start, whereas the fanatic Azariqa stand ready to unleash a terrifying wave of assassinations, to avenge the Battle of Nahrawan and the many slights they believe that they’ve suffered since. Both these faiths have been given new tenets to portray their unique worldviews. At game start in 867 there is also an ongoing Azariqa rebellion, which you can partake in if you want to attempt to form an Azariqan Caliphate.

[The Fedayeen tenet is shared by the Azariqa and the Nizari, and allows you to recruit and utilize fearsome assassins - fanatics devoted to slaying the unbelievers.]


[The rural, rebellious Khurramites are present in pockets all over Iran, though their great rebellions of the mid-9th century have long since been suppressed. Also featured in the screenshot is the new geographic special location of Mount Damavand. One of multiple new special buildings in the update.]


[The cultural map should be largely familiar, with some notable exceptions like 1066 and 867 now having differing setups in the region of Balochistan.]

When it comes to cultures, we have added a number of new cultural traditions, some of which add new gameplay elements such as the Qanat building line (from the Irrigation Experts cultural tradition which replaces Dryland Dwellers) or the new Court Scholar court position (from the new Beacon of Learning tradition) which can be sponsored to unlock new innovations.

[The Persians in particular have been given three new traditions to reflect all the refinement and enlightenment that made them so admired by Arabs and Turks alike.]

For the greater region covered by the update we now also have Jirga (for the Afghan, Baloch and Brahui cultures) which among other things unlock the Tribal Elective Succession form as well as new regional traditions that unlock unique Man-at-Arms types such as the Zupin (Pragmatic Creed) Spearmen or the Tarkhans (Frontier Warriors).



We are also adding historically inspired decisions and events to the region, with the aim of opening up the same possibilities to rulers in our game that historical rulers of the era would have had. This also means that some previously unlikely historical scenarios are now encouraged, for instance Turkic conquerors in general and the Seljuks in particular are more likely to show up and make a new home for themselves in the Iranian plateau, and as a rising ruler in Iran you have new ways of promoting alternate Islamic faiths in the region that are not as present yet at game start (such as the Maturidi denomination of Sunni Islam or Shia Imamism).

For the Seljuk arrival in the late 900s there is also a game rule to make their entrance more random or to turn it off entirely.
Last but not least the chaotic setup in 867 is now further improved by an early event chain about the Zanj rebellion which should add even more uncertainty and dynamism to an already quite open starting situation.



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[h2]Viziers[/h2]

A new type of diarchy coming in Legacy of Persia, viziers were historically many things. They were powerful private landholders, vital linchpins of the civil service, some of the most corrupt people in the world, and extravagantly dramatic party-hosts.



Mechanically, Viziers may be appointed by duke-tier or higher clan-government characters. Whilst incumbent, they grant you extra tax jurisdictions (scaled to their stewardship) and add a portion of their own tax collector aptitude directly to all of your tax collectors’ aptitudes, providing a powerful direct modifier on how much gold you get per month. How large a portion of aptitude they grant scales with how heavily the Scales of Power are swung towards them, so a more empowered vizier offers both benefits and drawbacks to their liege.



Unlike regents, being a vizier isn’t a prestigious position for a noble — you are, after all, merely a civil servant, and what’s worse one with actual work you’re expected to do — instead, landless courtiers and minor barons from your faith’s dominant gender compete for the post. Having the vizier in your pocket is still desirable, though, so prospective viziers at court will politick behind the scenes, gaining friendships and rivals with other prospective candidates, their liege’s spouses, and their liege’s stay-at-home adult children.

These relations in turn directly contribute to vizier succession score, so a candidate who’s friends with the current vizier will see themselves climb the ranking, whereas one who’s made an enemy of their liege’s spouse will see their score fall. For the same reason, prospective viziers will often learn their liege’s language, seeking to further their prospects for promotion.

As civil servants, viziers don’t have access to quite as many powers as regents. Predominantly they’ll embezzle and try to give negative county modifiers to vassals in exchange for gold, though a complacent liege who lets the Scales creep too far towards their supposedly-loyal vizier will find that they’re still capable of launching coups. Viziers are also usable in the new-ish confidant council position, which allows you to substitute them in instead of your spouse for spousal council tasks (your choice of which, naturally).

Though such functionaries can be fired at any time, removing the vizierate regardless of the status of the Scales of Power, a vizier with high swing is one who’s enmeshed themselves thoroughly, and who cannot be removed completely without consequence. Above a certain Scale swing threshold, firing your vizier will give you a severe negative economic modifier that harms your monthly income. This scales to how much swing the vizier had — so sure, you can fire them at 80+ swing if you like, but don’t think they won’t have arranged a little job security for just such an occasion.



An easier way to remove civil servants is to kick them upstairs: giving your vizier a county (or, if the Scales are really swung in their favor, a duchy) will also end the vizierate, this time without any economic fallout. Everyone loves a promotion, after all.

Finally, you may recall that I mentioned viziers were legendarily corrupt: though not always strictly true, this was generally the case, and actually a feature of the position rather than a bug. The role of a corrupt vizier was to run the realm’s finances, and it was generally understood that they’d enrich themselves in the process. It was fairly common for viziers to pay significant bribes straight to the liege to get the position — that and to capture and audit the last vizier for undeclared revenue.

The advantage to this for the liege was that, when they needed money in a pinch, rather than have to collect a special tax from the realm as a whole, force powerful vassals and governors to cough up more cash, or individually audit every petty tax collector, there was one person in the realm they could generally guarantee not only had money but had more money than they should have. Minimal overhead, maximum convenience. At least, for the liege.



In-game, we represent this through your vizier’s income and extravagance modifiers. They receive an income from positional corruption proportional to your own income (this doesn’t count towards the embezzlement secret, as it’s technically part of their official remuneration). Every so often, they’ll spend this money on character modifiers for treasure, activities, properties, or charity. Once they have one modifier of each type, they’ll begin again, spending more money on more expensive extra types of each modifier, up to four tiers.



Lieges can then mulct their viziers via interaction, fining them for their excesses. This deletes a rank of the vizier’s extravagance modifiers, liquidating them and transferring gold to the ruler that increases with the tier (and number!) of modifiers liquidated. Naturally, viziers aren’t generally too happy with this, even if the process further enmeshes them as the most important state official, but there’s not much they can do about it other than rebuild their losses. Which, naturally, makes them more attractive to mulct again down the line…



We’ve included about ~160 different modifier descriptions for what viziers are spending their money on, of which about half are explicitly historically attested (comments in the script file for anyone particularly interested in which), and another quarter reasonably probable. The remaining quarter is us trying to keep up with the lavish standards for extravagances set by history’s actual vizierates. These do vary vizier by vizier, so you should see your viziers purchasing extravagance modifiers relevant to their traits and interests.

That was all for this diary! I hope it has given a general idea of the type of flavor content that you can expect in Legacy of Persia, without spoiling all of what there is to discover.

[hr][/hr]

Join the struggle for medieval dominance in Legacy of Persia, the new Flavor Pack for Crusader Kings III, releasing on November 9.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2313540/Crusader_Kings_III_Legacy_of_Persia/

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Salutations!

It’s been a while since I last wrote a DD, so a quick (re)introduction might be in order. I’m Emil, aka “Servancour”, one of your resident CK3 game designers. I’ve been on the project since way before release, and tend to mostly focus a lot on game mechanics and systemic features. Which, in fact, brings me to why I’m here today. When we settled on Persia as the focus for our upcoming Flavor Pack, we soon came to realize that this would be an excellent opportunity to revisit the Clan Government and give it a much-needed update.

► Discuss Dev Diary #137 on our forums!



Clans, as you currently know them, are very similar to Feudal. There are only two real points of difference between them. Opinion is a major factor in their obligations, meaning that a vassal’s opinion of their liege affects how much taxes and levies they will give to their liege. Secondly, they have access to and utilize vassal contracts, albeit in a slightly stripped-down version, with less available options than their Feudal counterparts.

This begs the question; How can we make Clan Government stand out? We’ve already identified one aspect above, so our first action and problem to solve is this - How do (or should) Clans manage their vassals? Secondly, and perhaps much more important, is what does a Clan actually represent? What does the name mean for gameplay?

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with the first question, shall we? And have a look at Clan obligations.

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[h2]Tax Jurisdictions and Tax Collectors[/h2]

While we knew we wanted to add something new to Clan obligations, we had to ask ourselves how we wanted to make it different. As with all things Crusader Kings, adding a new element that makes use of characters felt like a natural fit, to give obligations some personality if you will. Meet the Tax Collector.



You’ll have access to a limited number of Tax Jurisdictions. To which you assign your Clan vassals as Taxpayers, allowing you to gain both taxes and levies from your subjects. A Jurisdiction requires a Tax Collector to function, however. So, before you can collect any taxes, you need to appoint one of your courtiers as a Tax Collector for each Jurisdiction.



With Tax Collectors, you won’t manage the obligations of your vassals directly. Instead, you manage them through your Tax Collector. Similar to a Court Position, a Tax Collector uses their aptitude to set the obligations of the vassals assigned to them. Higher levels of aptitude means that you’ll get more taxes and levies. Aptitude is primarily based on their skills, with Learning being the more important one, but their opinion of you also plays a significant part. To maximize the use of your Tax Collectors, you’ll want to find and appoint a skilled character, and then put the sway scheme to good use in order to squeeze as much gold from your subjects as possible.



While your Tax Collectors act as your intermediaries, you are still able to exact a certain degree of control of how they should manage your vassals. This is where Tax Decrees come into play. A Tax Decree is essentially how you want your vassals to be taxed, changing the obligations and providing an assortment of additional benefits.




With the introduction of Tax Decrees, it made perfect sense to move over some aspects of vassal contracts to this new system instead. For example, this is where you’ll find Iqta, Ghazi, and Jizya to use as you see fit. While you won’t have to bother with decrees if you don’t want to, they do give you opportunities to min-max in different ways. Decrees change the obligations of your vassals, either increasing or reducing them, in exchange for other boons. Take Iqta as an example. Iqta is a great option if you find yourself with vassals who are slightly upset, just enough for you to start taking notice, and if you also find yourself being at war frequently, as Iqta provides you with increased Men-at-Arms Damage based on the number of assigned vassals alongside an opinion bonus.



One thing to consider is that the modifiers applied to the obligations occur on the level as set by your Tax Collector. Which makes Decrees more or less powerful depending on the Tax Collector in question. Again, looking at the effects of Iqta, -20% to both taxes and levies won’t be very noticeable if your Tax Collector has a terrible aptitude. This makes Iqta very rewarding for the price you pay, since the gained benefit is pretty good. If your Tax Collector is excellent on the other hand, you’ll feel the impact of those 20%.


That about sums it up for how Tax Jurisdictions, Collectors, and Decrees work. With obligations out of the way, let’s go back and answer our second question!

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[h2]House Unity[/h2]

As the name suggests, Clans should be all about the clan itself and its members. Something that we really don’t represent at the moment. Nor does it have any real impact on how you play the game. To solve this and put a significantly larger emphasis on your House when you are playing as a Clan, we are introducing House Unity.

Unity represents the overall state of a House. Essentially the internal relationships between its members and the attitude they have towards each other. In many ways, Unity is the result of how you choose to interact with your fellow House members. We show everything regarding Unity in each Clans House view, allowing you to easily inspect your own Unity, and the Unity of other Houses.



We measure Unity on a scale between 0 and 200, divided up into five distinct ranges, or levels. Each level comes with a set of impactful rules and tradeoffs that may have a noticeable impact on how you play the game. By default, most Houses start in the middle. Essentially a “neutral” level. From there, they’ll be able to actively increase or decrease their Unity.

The levels are as following, listed from lowest to highest level of Unity:

• Antagonistic
  
• Competitive
  
• Impassive
  
• Friendly
  
• Harmonious
  

Thematically, having a high level of Unity means that you’ll enjoy internal stability and have House members that (generally speaking) adopt a friendly attitude towards each other. But you’ll pay for it with a reduced capability to wage wars as efficiently. CBs become more expensive to use, and you can no longer use the Invasion CB. A low level of Unity provides you with the opposite. You’ll gain a great deal of military might, allowing you to more easily conquer large swathes of land, but pay the price of reduced internal stability. Depending on your playstyle, you might enjoy a particular direction more than the other. Regardless of your own preference, having either low or high levels of Unity is meant to be equally viable.

Instead of having me ramble about the effects of each level, here are some nifty screenshots showing you what they look like:




Other than the passive effects, you also gain access to a set of unique decisions. Most of which are available only to the House Head, as they provide powerful boons for the entirety of a House. The primary currency for these decisions is Piety. Since most Clans belong to an Islamic faith, this felt like a natural fit. Besides, Piety is generally more difficult to get than Prestige, making you consider where and how to spend that hard earned Piety.

Some of these decisions make use of a completely new type of modifier; a modifier that scales on the number of landed House members. If you are like me, and like to utilize nepotism to the fullest, these modifiers can become incredibly powerful. Be mindful that the Piety cost will increase accordingly.

For all you modders out there, you can use scaling modifiers in every place you use regular modifiers. You simply feed it a value for how you want it to scale.

Let’s look at an example. If your House is Antagonistic, you can use the decision “Reinforce Army with Loyal Officers”:



Last, but certainly not least, Unity directly affects the outcome of your succession. Each level has an impact on the outcome of how titles are inherited, and the succession changes automatically as your House’s Unity changes. They all maintain a variant of Partition, meaning that titles will always be split to some extent. When you are Antagonistic, all eligible children inherit equal shares. If you are Harmonious, the primary heir inherits the majority of the titles (at least two thirds). With varying degrees in-between. At worst, this means that you don’t have to deal with Confederate Partition, and at best, you have an easier time accessing a superior version of High Partition. The drawback? While you can try to get a single heir succession law, such as Primogeniture, it will be more difficult and expensive to do so.



Now that we know what Unity does, let’s explore how it’s impacted by gameplay. As mentioned previously, Unity is all about the members of a House and how they interact. This will become apparent as you start interacting with your family members. A lot of existing interactions have been updated to also have an impact on your Unity in different ways. Whenever you are playing as Clan that is. Taking what we call “divisive” actions, such as Revoke Title or Imprison, against fellow House members will naturally reduce your House’s Unity. Meanwhile, “unifying” actions, such as Negotiate Alliance or Offer Ward, will increase Unity. Unity is therefore really a byproduct of how you and your fellow House members interact with each other.

With that said, the House Head enjoys a number of additional actions, giving them a greater degree of control in how they want to direct the Unity of their own House. The foremost of these is a decision in which the Head actively takes a stance and chooses a direction to steer their Unity. Then we also have two new interactions the Head can use on members of their House, both of which act as a double-edged sword and have some clear advantages and drawbacks.



There are of course many more interactions, far too many to list all of them here, which will have an impact on your Unity. Worth mentioning is that the immediate impact of these interactions is fairly small, but they stack up over time, especially when you are not the only one within your House who will be using them.

Rest assured that you’ll have plenty to explore as you get your hands on the updated Clan Government later this year, which will be included with the free update launching alongside Legacy of Persia!

[hr][/hr]

Join the struggle for medieval dominance in Legacy of Persia, the new Flavor Pack for Crusader Kings III, releasing on November 9.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2313540/Crusader_Kings_III_Legacy_of_Persia/

Join the conversation and connect with other Paradox fans on our social media channels!
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Greetings!

It is time to dive into the upcoming Flavor Pack - Legacy of Persia - giving a brief overview of the why and the what! The region has a rich and vibrant history making it both exciting and interesting to work with, not the least because it differs significantly from the regions we've chosen to cover in the past - Persia lies at the crossroads of the world, with a multitude of external influences combined with strong local traditions. Naturally while our focus has been on the Persian region itself, we've also aimed to shake up a portion of the world at large by revising how the Clan government works, so even if you're not playing in the Persian region there's something new and exciting to experience.

Co-writing this Dev Diary with me is Lucas Ribeiro - our skilled and multitalented 2D Art Lead at PDX Studio Black, who has been deeply involved with many of the features of this pack!

► Discuss Dev Diary #136 on our forums!






[h2]So, why Persia?[/h2]

For starters, our data pointed out that Persia is already a very popular starting location for our players. The region is within the top ten most picked starting locations and the most popular one outside of Europe.
Despite originally not having much flavor dedicated to the area and no bookmark characters attached to it, our players were still going for Persia playthroughs. There’s no better endorsement of the interest in the region than that!

But, player data aside, all history enthusiasts know how rich and interesting Persia is, even more so during Crusader Kings III’s time period. We saw this as a chance to create very interesting gameplay opportunities.

At the 867 game start, the Abbasid Caliphate is reeling from the Anarchy at Samarra. A moment in history when many Caliphs fell victim to a deadly struggle for power while insurrectionists raged up and down the Tigris and the Euphrates, such as the Kharijite and the Zanj Rebellions. Meanwhile in the east, Iranian rulers rose to challenge the Abbasid Authority. This time period, known as the Iranian Intermezzo saw a partial revival of Iranian culture with the ascension of the Saffarid and Samanid dynasties. About a century after the start date of 867, the Iranian Daylamite Buyids came to power, subjugating the Abassid Caliphate.

This Iranian comeback is then cut short by the Seljuk Invasion. A dynasty of turkic warrior nomads take over Persia and the Levant, submitting both Arabs and Iranians to their rule. Further on the east the Ghaznavids defeat the Samanids, cementing the end of the Iranian Intermezzo and leading into the state of Persia as we see in the 1066 start. The Buyids are not playable on the 867 start, as their founder, a warrior from the mountains of Daylam had yet to leap into history. But a last holdout of the dynasty can be found in Shiraz at the 1066 start.




[h2]Clan Government Rework[/h2]

Since the area of the flavor pack is almost entirely made up of Clan Rulers, for Legacy of Persia, we have decided to reimagine how the Clan government works.

Our aim is to more closely represent the familial struggles of the powerful clans of the time and the bureaucratic apparatus that backed their interests.

The Clan government is now directly tied to how your house members interact with each other. Each house will have a Unity Level that can be changed by intervention of the house head and by its members treating each other kindly or badly. A harmonious clan will have a consolidated succession, while an antagonistic one, not so much!

Clan rulers employ an office of bureaucrats, their Tax Collectors, to levy troops and coin from their vassals. The competence of a Tax Collector will dictate how much they manage to extract from the vassals assigned to them. Each Tax Collector manages a Jurisdiction with an associated Tax Decree. For example: You might want to place all your non-muslim vassals in a Jurisdiction with the Jizya Decree and maximize your gold income.

More details on the Clan Government design on a future dev diary.




[h2]Iranian-Heritage Cultures[/h2]

Persia and its surrounding areas are populated by a variety of different iranian-heritage cultures. We strived to give each one of them an original combination of cultural traditions that allow for a variety of new playstyles. The Kurds with their hard-to-convert culture and mountain cavalry, the Daylamites with their two-pronged spear wielding mercenaries and so on.
Persian culture, of course, received special attention. With new traditions about their famous scholarly pursuits and elaborate systems of water cooling and irrigation.

Iranian cultures have also received new clothes, headgears, hairstyles, beards and unit models, making them more appropriately distinct from the Arabic cultures. Also, due to their importance in the region, Turkic cultures have also received some sorely-missed assets, such as the Sharbush hat and the very recognizable Seljuk braids.




[h2]Islam and Zoroastrianism[/h2]


In Crusader Kings’ 3 starting date of 867, Islam has been the dominant religion of the upper classes in Persia for over a century. Still, Zoroastrian practices are still very much alive and widespread in the peasantry. We’ve done a general pass on religion in the region, adjusting provinces and characters to a more accurate historical representation. Tenets and doctrines for both Islam and Zoroastrianism have also received lots of adjustments and tweaks. Jizya, for example, has been moved to a tax jurisdiction type unlocked for muslim clan rulers. Both religions have received new decisions and events to flesh them out some more. They’re also strongly tied to the Struggle system in the region, speaking of which…




[h2]A New Struggle, the Iranian Intermezzo[/h2]

With Legacy of Persia, we are bringing a new Struggle, the Iranian Intermezzo.

This struggle seeks to represent the historical dissolution of the Caliphal authority over Persia and the ascension of new, powerful, Iranian Rulers In the 9th and 10th centuries. It also reflects a shorter historical period when compared to Fate of Iberia’s Struggle, so it is likely to be resolved more briefly and intensely.

Unlike Fate of Iberia, participant characters are clearly divided into factions. The Caliphal Supporters against the Detractors. A lot of new interactions are unlocked by this dynamic, such as convincing a character to switch sides, sponsoring turkic invasions against supporters, or waging war to install Caliphal Supporters.

The struggle has three phases, Unrest, Stabilization and Concession. The Concession phase is of a new type, a so-called Ending Phase. If a struggle gets to an Ending Phase, it will instantly trigger an ending. So, unlike Struggle Ending Decisions, where there is a dominant character that pushes the button to trigger it, every involved character can contribute to an Ending Phase by triggering relevant catalysts.

We have designed four struggle endings (three as decisions, one as an ending phase), which can be pursued in different ways, depending on the personal perspective of your character.

Will the Caliph be able to reestablish their power over the region? Will a powerful Shia ruler overtake the Sunni, creating a new Caliphate? Maybe an Iranian ruler will usher in an era of Persian dominance, forever boosting cultures of Iranian-heritage? Or, a Sunni Caliphal Detractor might oust the Caliph and take their place as head of faith?

In the Iranian Intermezzo Struggle we went for a more nuanced, granular approach, where the endings are subdivided into options that have different effects, according to your character’s culture, religion and whether they are part of the Supporter or Detractor faction.




[h2]New 867 Bookmark[/h2]

With Legacy of Persia we are adding a new bookmark, the Persian Revival, with five Iranian-heritage characters to choose from. These were picked both for their historical importance and to provide for a wide variety of gameplay styles.

In the mountains of Daylam we see a fan favorite, Rostam Bavandid, one of the last Sassanids in the game and a secret Zoroastrian. A great character if you are going for a “Sassanian Restoration” style playthrough.

In the southern reaches of Persia, Muhammad of the Tahirids is a loyal vassal and supporter of the Caliphate. His nephew, though, rules an independent emirate in Khorasan and is desperate for help against the invading Saffarids. This character was a great pick for us, since he’s split between internal and external conflicts in the Caliphate.

Since we mentioned Saffarids, we have Yaqub, the coppersmith. This lowly peasant rose to power through extraordinary military prowess. In one of his many battles, he was swordstruck and horribly disfigured. But, despite all these difficulties, this upstart is pushing back against the might of the Abbasids. He was an obvious choice for us, since he is an interesting historical figure and a sort of folk hero of the Iranian traditions, having restored Persian as the official dialect of the region (after it was supplanted by Arabic).

Next, we have one that will be familiar to the achievement hunters, Suri of the Ghurids. Although historically Suri is mostly known for running away from the Saffarids and hiding at his buddy Abdullah Habbari’s court, his dynasty eventually grew into a huge Empire. Being Tajik and Mahayana, he’s stuck between the Muslim and the Buddhist world, creating opportunities for interesting gameplay. There’s also a lot of juicy mines in the region that Suri can go claim and fuel his future conquests. Good luck to all players out there going for the “Rise of the Ghurids” achievement!

Lastly, we have Ismail of the Samanids. Despite being distant in the line of succession, historically Ismail came to supplant all of his relatives and assume control of his brother’s Emirate. The Samanids under Ismail grew into a true empire, only to be overtaken later by the Ghaznavids and the Seljuks. An interpretation of Ismail’s likeness can now be seen stamped on the Tajikistani currency, the Somoni, which is named after his dynasty.

That's it for this time! More details will follow soon!

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Join the struggle for medieval dominance in Legacy of Persia, the new Flavor Pack for Crusader Kings III, releasing on November 9.

https://youtu.be/kwKbVALjXpE

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2313540/Crusader_Kings_III_Legacy_of_Persia/

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